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Jul 31 //
Joe ParlockBuilding your Stronghold
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With the goal of providing “interesting and meaningful experiences to guilds”, the process of creating and upgrading your guild’s stronghold is at the heart of the expansion. All buildable structures and upgrades are ultimately decided by the leaders of the guild, but those goals are worked towards by every member through the “Coffers” system.
Coffers are the total resources available to a guild to help build up their stronghold, and they’re separated into three categories: materials, which are found in the lands surrounding your stronghold such as lumber; treasures, which are earned by playing through the campaign zones of the wider game such as the Dread Ring campaign; and stockpiles, the normal loot, gold, and astral diamonds players earn throughout the game.
Finding these resources ensures creating a good stronghold for your guild isn’t just a case of the leaders fiddling with the UI; every member of the guild would have a role to play, be it collecting resources or planning out where structures will go. Once there are enough resources to build a new structure in the stronghold, or to upgrade an already existing one, the guild leaders can then start the work of upgrading, while also setting the next goal for the guild to work towards.
However, the amount of upgrades you can apply to a structure depends on the overall level of the guild’s keep. While structures have a maximum level of 10, the keep can grow up to level 20. However, structures can’t out-level the keep, so sometimes an effort must be made to upgrade the keep rather than simply rushing for all the new and shiny buildings.
As players donate these hard-earned resources to their guild’s coffers, they are awarded guild marks with which they can buy new gear and items for themselves at the marketplace. It’s a way of incentivising altruism among the guild, and is one of the few times in the game players can make decisions for themselves that aren’t directly linked to the decisions of their wider guild.
Another way the guild must coordinate in building their stronghold is in the new added boons. Boons are passive bonuses granted to players, and in Strongholds, structures can be built to grant the entire guild specific types of boons. There are currently four categories: offense, defense, utility, and Player vs. Player (PvP).
The catch is not every type of boon would available for a guild at the same time, as there are only a limited number of boon structures that can be made. This requires decisions to be made about how players within the guild will be buffed. An example given would be a raiding guild may put more emphasis into PvP or offensive boons to increase their power. The boons in each category would be optional for each individual player, however what type of boon is available is up to the guild.
It’s a neat mechanic, as now other players who you’d regularly play with have an active impact on how your character works, and how these buffs influence your character may well change in the future. Should the guild decide to change an offensive boon structure to a defensive one, the boons you previously had would no longer apply. It’s interesting, however I could also see it causing some conflict within guilds.
The area given to a guild to build its stronghold on is the biggest zone Neverwinter has ever seen: it is three times bigger than the biggest previous one. The zone is split into multiple, smaller themed areas, each with their own enemies and quests.
For example, there may be faetouched areas, or there may be areas that are more desolate, and different enemies may be encountered in each one. It’s nice to see some variance in the zone, as Neverwinter does have a problem of each zone being its own themed thing that gets boring sometimes: the snowy zone, the desert zone, or the city zone and nothing but that.
Some areas will be sealed off and hidden until the stronghold has been built up and expanded on, but what’s interesting is that the future of the zone isn’t entirely known even to Perfect World yet.
The strongholds system is planned to be expanded upon over the course of at least the next two expansions: Strongholds and a currently unannounced expansion after that. According to them, being “done” with building a stronghold simply isn’t possible, as new structures and boons will be made available in future updates. While there is a storyline planned out for Strongholds and the expansion after that, the specifics of what sort of boons and structures will be included in them are apparently down to player feedback and community suggestions.
New Player vs. Environment Content
Building up a guild’s stronghold isn’t the only new addition to Neverwinter. Alongside it comes a new range of player vs. environment content, much like in the previous expansions before it. However, a lot of this will still directly help your stronghold grow.
Firstly, the act of actually acquiring your guild’s new keep will be part of a quest line that changes as the stronghold grows. At first, your guild and a travelling band of Orcs will both arrive at the same time, causing there to be multiple skirmishes and missions available. Finding guards, protecting farms, and driving off Orcs to ensure that your keep is safe in the early days.
As the keep levels up, new enemies will start to appear in the zone. For example, the second phase of the zone involves mercenaries appearing to try and steal the keep from you, giving you multiple quests involving dealing with them.
The zone’s campaign appears to play out in much the same way as previous campaign zones such as the Dread Ring have, however there is also the added dimension of it being dependent on your keep’s level. Of course, there will also be a series of daily quests available from your stronghold’s steward too, and they will also help guide players to the next of their campaign quests.
Greed of the Dragonflight
That’s all pretty standard expansion stuff: more of what Neverwinter players will be used to. What’s particularly interesting is the major new boss fight that occurs in the Strongholds zone.
Dubbed Greed of the Dragonflight, the boss is designed to be played by guilds of 40 or more players who must coordinate and plan out how to take down four powerful dragons simultaneously across the map.
If one dragon is killed, the other three will flee shortly afterwards, requiring guilds to figure out which players are best suited to take on each dragon, and make sure all four of them die at the same time. Doing so will net the guild huge rewards, some of the most powerful items in the game, according to Perfect World.
However, failure to nab all for dragons doesn’t mean nothing was gained. Due to some guilds not having enough players to take down all four dragons, there is a sliding scale of what rewards are given. The more dragons the guild can kill, the better the loot given.
What I saw of this event reminded me of my favourite bit of Neverwinter: the timed boss events. Instances are great, questing is fun, but seeing the alert to head to an area of the map to slay as big-as-hell lizard was always really cool to me. It’s involving, it’s hectic, and it looks as though adding in the extra element of needing to size up who takes on which dragon will make it all the more satisfying when the guild succeeds.
The difference between normal timed events and Greed of the Dragonflight is that it isn’t only a timed event. Due to a large amount of player requests, Perfect World is allowing guilds to trigger the event manually whenever they like, and so it could become a pretty big part of guild social life somewhere down the line.
A New PvP mode inspired by MOBAs
Player vs. Player in Neverwinter has been the centre of Perfect World’s attention for a while now: originally offering a fairly basic 5v5 arena mode, an open-world PvP was later added in Icewind Dale, and of course Strongholds will be adding even more for those who like stomping other players.
The PvP added to Strongholds is a 20v20 Guild vs. Guild mode, which when I first heard about it reminded me a lot of Guild Wars 2’s World vs. World feature. However, it appears as though the new mode is being more inspired by the likes of Dota and League of Legends.
This isn’t a compulsory feature, guilds must queue up to enter the mode. Once in the game, guilds will find their strongholds and surrounding lands “glued together”, with a river separating the two. The MOBA inspiration comes on the emphasis of controlling the various lanes between the two strongholds, while pushing forward and sieging the enemy guild.
Perfect World has also catered to smaller guilds that might not have 20 players online at a time. When in queueing, if a guild has enough players to spare, they will be transferred temporarily to the other guild and fight for them instead. It’s a nice way of evening the playing field, but it will also be interesting to see where their alliances lie once the match is underway.
It’s worth noting I didn’t get to actually see any PvP in action, due to the problems setting up a game with 40 players just to show me it would’ve caused. As such, all of this is only how it was described to me by Overmyer.
Final Thoughts
As previously mentioned, I’ve got a fair amount of experience with Neverwinter, however the lack of something to keep me interested once I’d finished the story quests meant I dropped out of the game soon after. Guilds have always been something in MMOs I’ve had an interest in, but never found the right match – I always ended up in quiet, inactive guilds where nothing ever happened.
Strongholds looks like it wants to solve both of my problems, while giving me more of the solo content that got me into the game at first. I’m somewhat concerned that finding decent guilds might still be tricky, but maybe the new toys guilds can play with will convince people to give running guilds a go.
PvP has never been a big interest of mine. I got into Rift’s quite a bit, but still eventually found myself going back to questing. Neverwinter in particular has been quite notorious for equipment you can buy in the store being perceived to be more powerful than stuff you can earn in-game, which always put me off PvP. However, if it’s true that the rewards from Greed of the Dragonflight are some of the strongest in the game, it could go a way to fix that problem.
Overall, I’m excited. I’m definitely going to be going back into it just to see how all of these new mechanics change how people interact within guilds, if at all. Plus Dragonflight is a condensed version of everything I like about Neverwinter, which is great. Neverwinter: Strongholds will be released on August 11 as the next free expansion on PC. Neverwinter is free-to-play on both Xbox One and PC, with a PlayStation 4 version of the game coming in the future.

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Jul 08 //
Patrick Hancock[embed]295623:59421:0[/embed]
Tower Control
This mode starts with a neutral, floating tower platform in the center of the map and tasks players to move it into the enemy's base by standing on it. The path of the platform is marked on the map, so everyone knows exactly where you're going. My enjoyment with this mode largely depends on the map, but Tower Control has provided my best moments in Splatoon.
Most maps are great in Tower Control, but one gets special mention for being not-so-great, and that's Saltspray Rig. I love map to death, but its Tower Control variant is just so darn small. I've won or lost rounds within a minute multiple times, often only being able to respawn once before the round is over. This isn't to say that it's impossible to have intense rounds on Saltspray, but I don't find them as common as in other maps.
The beauty of Tower Control is how it made previously unappealing weapons super awesome to me. I've never touched a Squelcher before, but the Custom Dual Squelcher with Squid Beakons and the Killer Wail is a favorite in this mode. Squid Beakons assure that my teammates can come back to the action quickly, and the Killer Wail is absolutely perfect for defense. Remember, you know exactly where the enemy will be, and I've used this information to score a triple-kill many times using the Killer Wail in Tower Control. It's so good.
I also started using the Classic Squiffer, which I used to think was a garbage weapon. Its sub abilities, the Point Sensor and Bubbler, are also perfect here. Many people "hide" in the ink when on the tower, so the Point Sensor allows me to show my team exactly where they're lurking. The platform isn't big, but the tower itself will block some ink if they're in the right spot. The Bubbler is always amazing, but when a team needs a final push, it's exciting to jump on the tower and protect everyone with a Bubble all at once! Plus, it doesn't hurt that all snipers are awesome in this mode, especially ones that don't need a long charge like the Classic Squiffer.
.96 Gal Deco
This weapon is a re-skin of the .96 Gal, but comes with a Splash Wall and Kraken as its sub abilities. The Splash Wall becomes way more effective in Tower Control, but the Kraken's recent nerf makes it way more underwhelming (see: balanced). As much as I love the .52 Gal weapon, the .96 leaves me hurting for ink too much to feel "in control." Considering Splash Wall takes a ton of ink, I'll continue to stick to the .52 Gal from here on out.
As great as Splash Wall is for Tower Control, I still believe the original .96 Gal is a better option. Both the Sprinkler and Echolocator are some top-tier abilities regardless of mode, and their pairing on the original make it a hard option to pass up.
Sploosh-O-Matic
This is my new favorite gun. I generally stick to the Inkbrush or Blasters, so I'm a fan of close-quarters combat. The Sploosh-O-Matic feels like an honorary blaster with its short range and incredible damage output. I can't stress the short range enough, though. In an Inkopolis dominated by Aerosprays, short-ranged weapons are often caught out if they're not careful.
One thing that surprised me was how incredibly fast this gun can fill its special. I was getting my Killer Wail ability way more often than with anything else. The best part is, since ink management can be tough with a gun like this, and using a special instantly refills ink, it's good to have a quick-use special like the Killer Wail. It's wonderful to ink a ton of ground, use the Killer Wail to kill or deny an area, and then keep on inking. Squid Beakons are just the icing on the cake, since they will always be a great choice to help out your team.
Is anyone else as addicted to Splatoon as I am? If so, which new weapons are your favorite? Feel free to add P-Dude to your friends list to play together sometime!

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